Department of Health Services Director Cathy Eden will retire from the post she has held for five years at the end of the legislative session, she announced Feb. 23.

“There is still much work to be done, and I will be hard at it until the minute I walk out the front doors for the last time,” she said.

Governor Napolitano said she will appoint a selection committee to search for a successor.

Ms. Eden, who has headed the 1,800 employee-agency, told Arizona Capitol Times that recent scrutiny of the state hospital and a long-standing court battle (Arnold v Sarn) over behavioral health services in Maricopa County did not play into her decision to retire.

“Those issues will be around our entire lifetime,” she said. “It’s nice to leave at a good time. The department is in good shape.”

A judge last December accepted a long-term state plan to improve services to more than 17,000 seriously mentally ill patients in Maricopa County as part of a lawsuit filed in 1981 on behalf of those patients.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid were critical of the state hospital after two audits of the facility last year. The hospital has since made improvements to treatment and dietary plans for civilly committed patients, but has yet to hear back from the federal agency regarding the hospital’s plan to remedy what was cited as inadequate investigation and follow-up on the death of several patients, Ms. Eden said.

Ms. Napolitano praised Ms. Eden for rebuilding the department to be better prepared for public emergencies, such as bioterrorism, including construction of the new Arizona State Health Laboratory.

Ms. Eden listed among her accomplishments the weathering of an anthrax scare, West Nile Virus outbreak and the flu vaccine shortage.

Besides Ms. Eden’s replacement, the Governor’s Office is searching for a director of the Department of Public Safety and a director for the state hospital. —